The Short Works festival is an annual showcase of several short plays written, directed, and performed entirely by students with additional guidance from Director of Theater Laurie Sales. This year’s performance features eight One Acts written by students who took the playwriting elective this winter. With a record-breaking number of seniors showing up at auditions, this year’s participation was the greatest yet. Any senior who has never performed for the Groton theater program is automatically guaranteed a role, so directors and playwrights get to enjoy watching their friends and formmates learn their way around a One Act for the first time over the next several weeks. 

Some playwrights had directors who saw completely different visions from their planned cast. “The cast I was thinking of contained an element of unexpectedness—like a senior guy taking the role of the cat for comical effect,” says Georgia Martin ’24, writer of A Cat, a Math Test, and a Breakup. Her One Act, directed by Sophie Zhu ’25, details the night of a high-school senior who has just discovered that her boyfriend is cheating on her at a party, while she is at home studying for an upcoming math test and taking care of her grouchy pet cat. Besides seeking a preferably male actor to play Mr. Whiskers, Georgia also feared that there would be difficulties “for two younger actors to portray the stress of a high-school senior.” During auditions, Jess Shapiro ’26 went in “a completely different direction” from what Sophie and Georgia had been searching for, but the audience loved Jess’s interpretation, cementing her role as Mr. Whiskers in the final cast. Georgia agrees that “it’s amazing to see new actors bring in such talent to the theater program,” taking risks with their creative freedom and spinning unique twists on the characters they represent.

This year’s newcomers weren’t just yearning for the spotlight but also for a chance to work behind the scenes. Tionbre “Tea” Austin ’26 took to the stage this winter as the leading male role of Billy Flynn in Groton Theater’s Chicago. As an experienced actor who wishes to step out of his comfort zone, Tea is directing the play In Tandem by Timothy Hebard ’24, a story about two brothers who get into an argument while on a hiking trip. “With acting, you’re more relying on and trusting the director’s judgment. As a director, you have to be confident in your choices.” Tea draws that confidence from his prior experience as an actor, stating the importance for directors to have “a great sense of acting.” The two brothers are played by Ayur Vallecha ’26 and Cam Kucera ’26. 

One of the largest plays comprising seven characters is A Time to Live and a Time to Die. Written by Kit Knuppel ’24, the play explores themes of mortality and “the combined experience of life” in the form of “a comedy about a funny funeral.” Amelia Barnum ’24, who features in this play as a returning actor, remarks that “the special thing about One Acts is that everything’s out of context.” As a varsity tennis captain and head of Model UN, Amelia agrees that many more people probably see her on the courts or in the classroom rather than “onstage taking a random role.” “And that’s what makes it funny,” she says, “that the actors are all out of character.”